A Missoula, Mont.-based air tanker company has protested a Forest Service plan to issue contracts for seven new air tankers, potentially hampering the agency's ability to battle wildfires well into the 2013 season.

When a Denver resident turns on the sprinkler in midsummer, it applies last winter's Rocky Mountain snowfall to the lawn. In the northern Rockies, that snowmelt fills the Columbia River, whose hydroelectric dams provide power to Seattle residents. Meanwhile, the meltwater flowing into the...

The Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide levels passed an ominous milestone yesterday when a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observatory on the Big Island in Hawaii registered 400 parts per million for the first time.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who holds the reins in the House over Interior Department spending, urged the Bureau of Land Management yesterday to boost its focus on wildfire management as a means of protecting the imperiled sage grouse.